Do You Think Low-Calorie Sweeteners Are Healthy? Read This, Part 2

Are you trying to reduce the size of your flabby arms? Is that sweet tooth getting the best of you?

Well, many women fix this issue with low-calorie sweeteners. Unfortunately, they come with a health risk. And in this second part of this article series, I am going to shed light on some more sweeteners and provide some useful tips for sugar management.

Enjoy.

Stevia

I thought I had found the holy grail when I discovered stevia. I went buck wild with this stuff and proceeded to sprinkle almost everything I ate with the snow white substance.

Used by indigenous South Americans for centuries, Stevia comes from a natural herb. My mistake was to assume that natural was safe…

Then I came across some startling research. Research that showed how stevia is broken down into steviol, a mutagen in the human intestine. I wasn’t very happy with this.

Now the research conducted thus far is definitely not the end all be all on stevia. Nevertheless, no one should consume large amounts of this stuff. My personal recommendation is to have no more than a couple servings per day.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

This is one evil sweetener for two reasons. First, it’s being pushed onto young and unsuspecting children. And second, in high enough quantities, it has the potential to make flabby arms blow up like balloons.

Why is this stuff so bad?

Despite eating a lot of it, your body doesn’t get a “feel full” signal because it’s sent to the liver.

It raises triglyceride levels in the blood.

It raises blood pressure.

It raises liver cholesterol.

Take home point: fructose increases fat levels in your liver and arteries. Not good!

Sucrose

Also known as table sugar, sucrose can contribute to circulatory disease, cancer and most importantly, an increase in the diameter of that flabby arm!

Having said that, sucrose is FAR better than fructose. And when consumed in moderation, it doesn’t cause any damage to your health or arms.

Honey and Agave Nectar

Both of these are basically sugar dissolved in water, but they have 10 times the amount of antioxidants. Thus, they are a healthier (and tasty!) alternative to both fructose and table sugar.

HOWEVER, their antioxidant content does NOT serve as an excuse to overindulge. After all, vegetables have a far broader range of phytonutrients without the added calories.

Tips for Sweetener and Sugar Management

Don’t let sugar intake exceed 10% of total calories.

Have a BIG salad before dessert.

Never have sugar by itself.

Don’t drink liquid sources of sugar.

Aim for sugar that is unprocessed (i.e., organic brown sugar).

Try to replace sugar with DARK honey.

Use xylitol (aka a “sugar alcohol”) as a low-calorie sweetener since it seems to be the safest of them all.

Have no more than a few servings of stevia per day.

Of all the low-calorie sweeteners, stevia is by far my favorite in terms of taste. Because of its risk profile, however, I have drastically reduced my intake. I strongly suggest you do the same.

The bottom line is that most of what we know about these sweeteners comes from unreliable short-term research done by the companies themselves. There simply isn’t any long-term research proving the safety of these substances. And getting rid of those flabby arms should NOT involve risking your future health. So never forget the number one key to sweetener management: moderation.

It seems that erythritol is an even better option over xylitol. As compared to other sugar alcohols, erythritol has a high digestive tolerance. In fact, it has the highest digestive tolerance of all the sugar alcohols. Its digestive tolerance is 2-3 times better than xylitol